On Sunday, the Sultanpur Majra MLA was allegedly present in person at Khatri’s rally.

“It’s a well-planned conspiracy of AAP to harm the BJP’s poll prospects at Narela,” Delhi BJP vice-president Rajiv Babbar had said, adding that Kumar was not invited to the rally and he went away after talking to the media.

Putin, who has ruled the country nearly two decades got more than 76% of the vote.

Around 55.5 million of voters supported his candidacy in the election that took place on Sunday paving the way for Putin, 65, to lead the country until 2024 after which he is constitutionally obliged to stand down, reports Sputnik news.

In 2012, Putin had attained 45.6 million votes (63.6 per cent) which secured his position until 2018. In 2000, 39.7 million people (52.9 per cent) voted for him, while 49.6 million (71.31 per cent) backed his candidacy in 2004.

Putin extended his thanks to volunteers for their hard work during the election campaign and called the preliminary results “very decent”.

“I think that we are a big team… I mean everyone who voted today and due to the position of whom this very decent result emerged,” Sputnik news quoted the President as saying here on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin is in the second place with 11.87 per cent of the vote, followed by head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 5.73 per cent, Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak with 1.64 per, according to the CEC.

Grigory Yavlinsky, the co-founder of the Yabloko Party, has received only 1.02 per cent of votes followed by Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov with 0.75 per cent, Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin with 0.68 per cent and Sergey Baburin from the All-People’s Union party with 0.64 per cent.

Putin’s fiercest political opponent, Alexei Navalny, had been barred from competing because of an embezzlement conviction that he said was manufactured by the Kremlin, reports the BBC.

He called for a boycott of the election.

In his first reaction to the preliminary results, Navalny indicated he had been unable to contain his anger.

“Now is the season of Lent. I took it upon myself never to get angry and not to raise my voice. Oh well, I’ll try again next year,” he tweeted.

Sunday’s vote was also the first in Crimea since Russia seized the region from Ukraine.

Shock defeat for BJP in UP, Bihar by-polls

In the neighbouring Bihar, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) dealty a stunning blow to the saffron party and its ally JD-U headed by Chief Minister Nitsh Kumar when it bagged the Araria Lok Sabha seat.

Lucknow/Patna, March 14 : In results that can set the tone for the 2019 general elections, the BJP on Wednesday received a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha and assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar losing four of the five seats, including the prestigeous Gorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentary constituencies, after non-BJP parties teamed up in alliances against the saffron party in the two states.

The BJP also lost the Araria Lok Sabha constituency and the Jehanabad assembly seat while scoring a consolation win in Bhabhua assembly seat in Bihar. The results in both the states triggered calls for a Grand Alliance – a la Bihar – all across India to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

After sweeping the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and the assembly elections last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced formidable rivals in the form of Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP who stitched a last minute alliance in the by-polls. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had announced the backing of her party for SP candidates in both the constituencies in return for a SP support to her party candidate in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections.

Yogi Adityanath, who had represented Gorakhpur seat in the Lok Sabha for five times, winning the last elections in 2014 with a margin of 3.13 lakh votes, resigned from the seat after he was became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Before him, his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath was MP from the seat for two terms, in 1991 and 1993.

In the Phulpur constituency, which was once represented by first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, SP candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel defeated BJP candidate Kaushalendra Singh by a margin of 59,613 votes.

The SP has been the runner-up on Gorakhpur seat many times before, while it had won the Phulpur seat four times since 1996. BJP won Phulphur Lok Sabha seat for the first time in 2014 when (now) Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya won by a margin of over three lakh votes.

In 2014, BJP and its ally Apna Dal had won 73 of 80 Lok Sabha seats and 325 out of 403 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections.

In the neighbouring Bihar, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) dealty a stunning blow to the saffron party and its ally JD-U headed by Chief Minister Nitsh Kumar when it bagged the Araria Lok Sabha seat.

It was a direct fight between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and the Grand Alliance of the RJD-Congress in Bihar, a year ahead of the next Lok Sabha battle.

With the original Grand Alliance having come apart as the JD-U deserted it and joining hands with the BJP, there was a lot at stake for everyone in the by-elections: the RJD, JD-U, BJP and Congress.

Workers of SP and RJD celebrated across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by distributing sweets and bursting firecrackers.

At the Bihar Assembly premises, RJD legislators played Holi, splashing each other with colour powder.

Elsewhere, RJD workers beat drums and raised slogans hailing Lalu Prasad, who has been jailed for corruption, and his son Tejashwi Yadav, who asked opposition leaders to join hands at the national level to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha battle.

The balloting in Jehanabad and Bhabua followed the death of RJD and BJP legislators respectively. The Araria Lok Sabha seat became vacant after the death last year of Mohammad Taslimuddin, the RJD MP.

The RJD fielded Sarfaraz Alam — son of Taslimuddin and a legislator of the ruling JD-U. Last month, he left the JD-U and quit the Assembly to join the RJD.

Initially, the postal ballots were being counted after which the electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be opened for counting.

Results for both the seats were likely to be announced by 12 noon.

The Gorakhpur seat was vacated by Yogi Adityanath after he became Chief Minister while the Phulpur seat fell vacant after the election of his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya as an MLC in the state assembly.

Amid poor balloting – 43 percent in Gorakhpur and 37.39 percent in Phulpur, both the ruling, as well as the opposition, was claiming victory.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has extended support to the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates in both the seats.